DES MOINES, Iowa — Rumors swirled over the past week of possible demonstrations at state capitols across the country, including Iowa.
While local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies have been preparing, so have store and restaurants near the Iowa State Capitol.
"There’s this protest that’s supposed to be planned. We hear it’s supposed to be planned, so we came up with a brief game plan if things were to escalate and what we would do," said Jordan Laufenberg, assistant manager at Molly's Cupcakes, a bakery just a few blocks from the capitol grounds.
Right next door, Iowa Taproom employees were getting ready as well.
"The past couple of days we’ve been talking about if we would need to relocate staff or if guests were going to need to be relocated," said McKinzie Ceballos, assistant manager at the Iowa Taproom.
The two local businesses each had plans depending on what might. Those plans included anything from monitoring traffic into their stores, making sure customers stay away from windows. or completely closing for the day.
"if we needed to close down, we would have done so if need be. Everyone's protection comes before the business at that point," said Ceballos.
The Des Moines Police Department was on alert as well. The department issued the following statement to Local 5:
"We have seen no activity today, and we have been working daily with our state and federal partners, and, at this time, have not identified any credible threats. We are prepared and have the ability to respond on a moment's notice to any issues that may arise."
Shop owners were happy to see that nothing did arise around their stores.
"Wonderful thing! We were still able to stay open," Laufen berg said. "Business has been pretty good today still ... business as usual."